The US Democratic Party's front-runner for November's presidential election, John Kerry, has had decisive wins in Michigan and Washington state, extending his domination of his party's presidential race and has moved a step closer to the nomination. Kerry's nearest rival, Howard Dean, came a distant second.
Kerry, a Massachusetts senator and decorated Vietnam War veteran, cruised to victory in both states yesterday, giving him nine wins in the first 11 nominating contests.
With three more states voting in the next three days, Kerry's growing momentum threatens to swamp all five rivals vying for the right to challenge President George W. Bush in November.
Kerry sounded like he was already looking ahead to a match-up with Bush during a campaign swing through Tennessee and Virginia, which vote on Tuesday. He promised voters he could win in the South and stand up to the president.
"George Bush's days are numbered, and change is coming to America," Kerry said at a state party dinner in Richmond, Virginia, where he lashed out at Bush for running an "extreme administration" and said the "Bush attack machine" would not be able to smear him.
"They're extreme. We're mainstream - and we're going to stand up and fight back," said Kerry, who leads Bush in several national polls.
A total of 204 delegates to July's nominating convention were at stake in Michigan and Washington, the first of five states to vote in quick succession in the presidential race. Maine will hold caucuses on Sunday, and Tennessee and Virginia will hold primaries on Tuesday.
A sweep of the next three contests by Kerry, whose candidacy was almost given up for dead a month ago, could send some of his foes out of the race and make Wisconsin a potential last stand for all of Kerry's remaining opponents.
Kerry, whose rise has been fuelled by voter perceptions that he has the best chance of any Democrat to beat Bush, won about half of the vote in both Michigan and Washington.
Dean finished second in both states, with nearly a third of the vote in Washington but less than 20 percent in Michigan. North Carolina Senator John Edwards was the only other candidate to break into double digits, hitting the mark in Michigan.
Michigan and Washington, two strongly Democratic states, had been pegged as key battlegrounds in the nomination fight but Kerry's surge forced his rivals to abandon them in recent days and set their sights elsewhere.
Retired General Wesley Clark and Edwards focused on Tuesday's contests in Virginia and Tennessee, where they each hope to emerge as the chief alternative to Kerry. Polls in both Virginia and Tennessee on Saturday showed Kerry with clear leads.
Dean made some appearances in Michigan and Washington but pulled out to concentrate on Wisconsin. He said his finish in Washington state sent "a clear message ... that our campaign is the real alternative to John Kerry".
Kerry, a four-term senator, ended any questions about the breadth of his support with wins last Tuesday in Arizona, North Dakota, Delaware, Missouri and New Mexico. Victories in Virginia and Tennessee would end doubts about whether a son of Massachusetts can compete in the South.
On the campaign trail, he has hammered away at his theme of driving the special interests out of the White House and providing a more experienced hand on foreign policy and national security.
In his speech in Richmond, Kerry accused Bush of making the United States weaker economically and militarily by overextending US forces and driving away allies.
"Will we stand with the mainstream values that have defined our country - or will we continue on the extreme path of the Bush administration - a path fundamentally at odds with our history and our hopes?" Kerry asked. "We as Democrats will not run from a debate about who represents mainstream America; we welcome it."